Brokerages Set Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target at $307.22

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $307.2222.

LECO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, August 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $340.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $257.00 to $283.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of LECO stock opened at $257.20 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $14.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.21. Lincoln Electric has a 1 year low of $216.22 and a 1 year high of $310.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $268.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $263.38.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.17 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 39.23% and a net margin of 12.35%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.60 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 11.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a $0.79 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.57%.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LECO. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 118.8% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 350 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Company Profile

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: LECO) is a Cleveland, Ohio-based manufacturer of welding, cutting and automation products. Founded in 1895 by John C. Lincoln, the company serves industrial, construction, energy, transportation and other end markets that use fabrication and joining technologies.

Its product portfolio includes arc-welding machines, welding consumables such as electrodes and wire, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment, robotic welding systems, and related automation solutions.